I can do a 402 by hand (though I really really rather not) and check it under a microscope lol, and I did a few SOT23 6 terminal flip flops today, which is a little bit bigger than a 1008 ... but its got 6 pins

I can do a 402 by hand (though I really really rather not) and check it under a microscope lol, and I did a few SOT23 6 terminal flip flops today, which is a little bit bigger than a 1008 ... but its got 6 pins

I can solder tiny pins. It's moving around the tiny parts.

For tweezers, I use a pair I picked up at Fry's that have tips sharp enough to kill. The fine point also seems to prevent heat conduction, so the part and solder get hot, and the heat stays there and doesn't conduct to the tweezers (and make the part cold).

Solder =wants= to fill in any gaps it can find, thanks to the miracle that is surface tension. Stay away from the coffee and lots of tiny pins shouldn't be too hard. Though I think I'm gonna buy me a hot air soldering thingy soon.

Correct, hot air systems are great for replacing components or working small sections at a time. But if you have any interest in getting things done quickly, the stencil approach is hard to beat. Plus, there is usually little to no rework after the fact because the solder paste amount is always right (ie no bridges to be removed). I guess it comes down to how much you value your time.

Heh, I used to think that way too, money before free time. The problem is, I call that penny wise, pound foolish. At least for me it was. I used to think I could do it all by hand and save money, but it was taking forever and on parts that small, I was having more misses than hits. So, I invested in a cheap electric skillet and now I do everything by reflow. I do still cut my stencils by hand, but most of what I have done so far wasn't too crazy. The most pads I had to cut were 288 on one PCB, of which 168 of them were 0.5mm pitch. THAT was fun to cut by hand. Took about an hour. But, the reflow of all 20 boards took about 20 minutes.

Now I'm working on a project where there will be several different PCBs and this time I'm just going to get stencils made. Especially since I have a QFN32 and a MLF32 on one of them.